Video feature: 'Grand Challenges'

By Holly Welles on April 18, 2011, noon
Grand Challenges index

Stephen Pacala directs the Princeton Environmental Institute, which collaborates with the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs to oversee Princeton's Grand Challenges Program. Grand Challenges is an interdisciplinary research and teaching effort to tackle global environmental problems that have scientific, technological and policy implications.

Photo by Denise Applewhite

 Video stills by Nick Barberio

Stephen Pacala, director of the Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI), narrates this overview of the Grand Challenges Program. Launched in 2007, the program is an ambitious and broadly inclusive University initiative that integrates research and teaching to address complex global environmental problems with scientific, technological and policy dimensions.

"The Grand Challenges Program is designed to help solve some of the most important problems that confront humanity by training a generation of leaders committed to these problems," Pacala said.

A collaboration among PEI, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, the program seeks solutions to problems of energy and climate, sustainable development in Africa, and global health and infectious disease.

The video includes testimonials from faculty and students about how Grand Challenges is leveraging outstanding scholarship, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, and transforming undergraduate and graduate learning experiences.
 

Related Stories

Crossing boundaries to confront global problems .

Several dozen Princeton students and faculty are taking aim at the world's most pressing — and complex — problems through the Grand Challenges Program. This interdisciplinary, collaborative effort by the Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI), the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs is creating new programs in teaching and research in the areas of development, energy and health while building on the University's existing strengths in these areas.

Princeton experts focus energy on sustainable human future .

Humanity can't go on like this. Earth's climate is shifting, and it is all but certainly civilization's fault for burning fossil fuels and spewing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. To avert the economic and environmental crisis that unchecked global warming is predicted to bring, humanity needs a sustainable way of living that threatens neither society nor the planet — and hundreds of Princeton researchers are banding together to find one.

Video feature: 'Discover Princeton Environmental Institute' .

Stephen Pacala, director of the Princeton Environmental Institute, provides a visual tour of the University's interdisciplinary center for environmental research, education and outreach. In this video Pacala discusses the institute's mission, world-class faculty, interdisciplinary research and unique educational opportunities, including internships.

Program strengthens links between work inside and outside the classroom .

When the more than 100 students who completed internships this summer through the Princeton Environmental Institute and the Grand Challenges Program returned to campus, they had at least one more commitment.

From science to security, Mahmoud aims to improve global health .

After a quarter-century in academic medicine and eight years at the helm of Merck Vaccines, joining the faculty at Princeton was the most compelling next step for global health expert Adel Mahmoud.

Major High Meadows gift renames Princeton Environmental Institute .

The philanthropic organization co-founded by Judy and Carl Ferenbach III, a member of the Class of 1964, has made a transformative gift to support environmental research at Princeton University

Engineering school's growth targets societal needs .

H. Vincent Poor, a 1977 graduate alumnus who became dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science in June 2006, epitomizes Princeton's tradition of the teacher-scholar. In this interview, he talks about the school, reflecting on its past and contemplating its future.